Eric's Eddyfications

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone out there had a Happy Thanksgiving. We did - my brother even braved Black Friday and waited in line at 4am with the Tiger Direct computer geeks and picked up one of only fifteen available 46" Sharp TVs. He was not a popular guy at the checkout line. But he was very popular last night when we watched a bunch of cool sports in ginormous HD. I guess it pays to have a newborn who is going to wake you up at 4 in the morning anyway!

Everything Old is New Again

I'm not a huge Star Trek fan, but man, this trailer got me! I think that one of the more prevalent forms of art these days is in the category of "reinvention." Something old gets turned into something new, and your fondness for the original material enable you to jump into the new interpretation with excitmeent. I think for our generation, Baz Luhrman's Romeo and Juliet was the pioneer. He took the Shakespeare text and breathed new life into it. And if this Star Trek trailer represents, then this movie is gonna do the same for the franchise that dared to boldly go where no man had gone before... Here's the trailer!

Save the Date for the Christmas Musical!

Hey y'all - save the date and pick one of the four available - to come and see Community Christian's new musical for Christmas. It's called "Let It Be Christmas", and it's a musical about the birth of Jesus as told through the music of the Beatles. It's going to be off the hook! My brother Elic is directing, and we got the idea from Granger Church, who has been totally helpful in giving us advice and overall guidance. Elic, Zach Goforth and I are singing the roles of the wise men, which may explain how each of us has decided to "beard up."
The show dates are: December 18-21. All shows except Saturday start at 7:30pm. Saturday December 20 starts at 8:30pm. Fun and awesome for the whole family. Playing exclusively in the Gymnatorasium of the Yellow Box campus in Naperville. Be there!

Have you seen this Mascot?

 Late last year, our church mascot, a large plastic wise man named Billshazzar, went missing. Many CCC attenders don't even know that Billshazzar is our unofficial mascot. Word on the street is that he is twittering.

You all know my stance on Twitter. That it's kinda dumb. I would never do something like that. Apparently Billshazzar, while still missing, seems to get into the whole Twitter thing. Hmmmm. Let me know if you find him. Looking at some of the "tweets", it almost feels like he's following me.

Why go to Atlanta?

Enjoying the Catalyst One-Day conference - and I didn't have to go to Atlanta! They brought Andy Stanley and Craig Groeschel to Granger Indiana, and the good people at Granger Community Church are hosting. I've been having a great time hanging with Butch Whitmire who does what I do here, there. It's great to connect with fellow teammates who are in the thick of it, doin' the stuff!

Church Sign huh?

I know it's been a while since I posted one of these, but can someone explain this one to me: THEY SEE OUR METHODS, HE SEES OUR MOTIVES.

Restore

A few weeks ago Troy McMahon came into town to officiate for a wedding that I attended and performed in. It was kind of interesting because he ended up doing the "Campus Pastor Moment" at the Downtown location where he led since it had begun. And yet, all of my current small group, a bunch of neighbors who we've been becoming friends with over the last few years, had ZERO connect with who Troy was. I can't imagine CCC without him, and here are people who are brand new and have no idea who he is and/or where he went, or why.

So I thought of them when I came across this video that the Restore team made for their version of the Big Idea for "The Story of Everything." For their week all about "the church" - they chose to tell the Restore story. And did so in a compelling way. And so, if you know him or not, here's your chance to meet Troy McMahon (and listen to the dulcet tones of his wife Janet's voiceover!)

Enjoy, and meet Restore.

The Story of Restore from Restore Community Church on Vimeo.

Fallapalooza pics

Sean Bublitz was awesome enough to take lots of pics of Fallapalooza. You can view them here: http://seanbublitz.com. Enjoy!

Fallapalooza was a blast

Well, we had a great time, didn't we?

Last Friday night, Fallapalooza happened, and once again, it was a huge hit. Bringing together all the campus locations and their arts teams who make the big idea happen every week at their locations. Great videos from the past year played, and we finished the night with a rousing version of "3C Bohemian Rhapsody." Even though the entire event was Ferguson-less, it was still a huge night of awesomeness. Thanks to the 550 or so who decided to come to the yellow box for a great night of entertainment!

Most of the videos we played stuck to the theme of "keep it light, keep it fun, and have some fun" - but we also ran, near the end of the night, one of my favorite "serious" videos from this past year. Here again it is, it's called "My Baggage."

The River

There is a river, and yesterday at Community we learned that the church is the river. Or the opposite of the Dead Sea. Or something. Anyway, it was awesome. Watch the videocast here. Our own Tom Greever got a piece of gear allowing us to put a camera underwater, borrowed a canoe, and headed out to the DuPage river to shoot A-Roll for a video montage set to Jars Of Clay's "There Is A River." Here it is. Hope you like it!